Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

@ExTra Thanks for looking. I think I'll pass as I've realised with the new Macbook Pro I don't have enough ports to have a wired mouse.

What portable wireless mice do people use with their macs?
Apart from the mighty ones I mean.
I would prefer something with a bit more grip and actually do like a real mouse wheel.

I tried a Razer Atheris, which is a pretty good mouse, yet kinda heavy (due to two AA batteries inside), and if you wanted to use the extra buttons you're out of luck as their software doesn't play with Catalina.

If you don't mind the weight and are fine with just M1 and M2 buttons then I would recommend it (it's less than half the price of a Mighty Mouse 2 as well)..

Why do you want to miss out on horizontal scrolling which is a key behaviour in the finder?

I really use horizontal scrolling about four times a year, tops.

What portable wireless mice do people use with their macs?

Logitech MX Anywhere, had it for years now and got it synced with work laptop too - wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone

so just taken apart one of the lacie external drives, and the HDD within fires up in a different enclosure, it's an 8tb Seagate Ironwolf.
Question: is it worth getting a 2bay NAS enclosure to put the drives in and use for back up duties, (desktop and drives/ NAS - movies), like this
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/QNAPTS-231P2-1G-Powerful-Affordable-Network-Attached/dp/B072WB9DGS/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2EKE1X4RC6NED&dchild=1&keywords=qnap%2B2%2Bbay&qid=1594203913&s=computers&sprefix=qnap%2B%2Ccomputers%2C160&sr=1-4&th=1

or should I just buy some more single drive enlosures (like these I already have)
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Tool-free-External-Enclosure-Adapter-Compatible-usb3-0-black/dp/B07L9KC9N4/ref=sr_1_21?dchild=1&keywords=3.5+esata+hard+drive+enclosure&qid=1594203715&s=computers&sr=1-21

or multiple enclosures (like this one)
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Mediasonic-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B078YQHWYW/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1GJB9KZF6KPKZ&dchild=1&keywords=mediasonic+enclosure&qid=1594203500&s=computers&sprefix=mediasonic+%2Ccomputers%2C147&sr=1-5

thoughts welcome..

Anker Docking Station, PowerExpand Elite 13-in-1 Thunderbolt 3 Dock for USB-C Laptops, 85W Charging for Laptop, 18W Charging for Phone, 4K HDMI, 1Gbps Ethernet, Audio, USB-A Gen 1, USB-C Gen 2, SD 4.0 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087BCRS1D/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8cLbFbZTD9A46

@Velocio Did you consider this alongside the one you ended up using?

@tonylast ..not a huge fan of the design but will consider it, thank you for the recommendation!

I did consider it, but it's the same price range as the CalDigit TS3+ and yet a £90 Anker had already failed from the USB2.0 bug... so I opted for the CalDigit on a hunch that Anker would be re-using chipsets across their range and it might still exhibit the bug I was experiencing.

If you get this and it works on a 2020 MBP or MBA with USB2.0 devices... let me know.

So went to the Apple store Covent Garden today. The best social distancing I have ever seen. You have to go through 3 check points before allowed into the store.

So I arrived and was greeted by a staff asking me the reason for my visit, it was an appointment so he checked me in, then I had to head over to security to have my temperature taken, then I had to head over to another security about 10 steps away to be told to go round some barriers that they put our for long a long queue (there was only me and another customer)... then when I was in the queue, someone came over and confirmed that I did have an appointment and took me into the store, which was only a few steps, he then watched me use their hand sanitiser. Then I had the genius waving at me from the 1st floor and of course he was waiting for me at the top of the stairs when I was finally allowed to move freely.

The whole experience was very pleasant but very odd, I couldn’t walk more than a few steps without having a member of staff asking me if I was alright, which was a polite was asking where Was I going.

They must have had about 20+ staff in the store and only about 7 customers when u was there, I don’t think there was anyone actually there to shop so yeah just all repair appointments and a quick browse into the way out...

Also, if you need to bring anything in for repair, depends on the types of repairs, their default option now is to send it off and you’d get your stuff delivered back to you.

Turnaround is about a week.

They're good at spotting trends. Maybe this is a practice run for competing against G4S to run security in our pre-apocalyptic world when Trump wins his 3rd term.

How enormous is the 11 Pro Max? On a standard 8 at the moment.

Gigantic. And it weighs a tone.

And they have given up... just got back from there again to pick up my Mac. Only 1 check point but a queue of about 6 people. I think when I went on Friday, they were just bored...

But amazed by the quick turnaround of just over 24 hours and they didn’t charge me a penny - they decided to cover the cost under the consumer rights legislation. Well I was going to argue with them using that anyway, but it was refreshing to see a company actively offering this.

I think when I went on Friday, they were just bored...

I think they were trolling you

Re: Moshi iVisor

..been using this a while now with a 16".

The two main questions regarding this seem to be "does it affect screen quality a lot" and "does it work well in terms of reducing glare / reflections".

When I put the thing on the screen it felt like a "downgrade". It isn't so much a "rainbowing" affect around the individual pixels as you sometimes have with these things, but the whole appearance of the display becomes a bit more "rough", a bit "grainy". At first this does look bad.
After a week I noticed that I don't actually, uh, notice it any more. And on the other hand I realized that looking at my laptop for hours has become more easy on the eyes really. It's more "calm" now.

The thing does reduce reflections very much. You do not see yourself / your room etc. in the dark parts of your screen any more. There is this sort-of "hazy" feel to it though, and in some weird, bright lighting situations this sometimes results in some sort of glare that makes things on the screen hard to see / read; bit hard to explain, it's like when there's a lot of light, but not directly on the screen but reflected from the table / the MacBok itself. In these cases the glossy display without the thing on it might be better frankly.
Overall it does improve things though, for me.
I makes the screen look more consistent regardless of where you are.

Oh and about the keyboard marks / smudges etc -
that's really good (the thing is very easy to wipe clean with a microfiber or soft cotton cloth).

Been using my partners old iPhone 6 (from 2014!) for the last 2 weeks as my main phone in an attempt to split my reliance on using work owned devices.

Its actually.. fine. its a big laggy but no worse than the Pixel 3a I had to use last year. Camera is bad now but not taking photos at the moment, otherwise it works amazingly for a 6 year old phone.

Very excited by rumored smaller iPhone 12, will then weigh it up vs the SE.

Very excited by rumored smaller iPhone 12, will then weigh it up vs the SE.

This. I have the 11 pro (normal size one) but I'll be swapping in a heartbeat for a tiny phone. Got an iPad & two MacBooks at home if I want a bit screen experience.

Yeah every time i pickup my work 11 pro now it feels enormous and its so heavy

I dug out my old Android Xperia z3 compact the other day and I forgot how tiny it is. I've drifted towards using larger and larger phones because they come with better cameras and screens but I would totally buy a small phone again if they made one with modern specs.

Or a throw back?

The bug I found and reported in extreme detail before it got picked up everywhere else has apparently been patched in today's OS X release:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2047?locale=en_US

Resolves an issue where certain USB mouse and trackpads may lose connection

Resolves all USB2.0 issues... by proxying them all to USB2.1 !

I'm going to experiment tomorrow and see what it does... my suspicion is that they actually have a chipset problem but that software determines whether the chipset is used and by proxying to USB2.1 a different chipset is selected. I shall have fun finding out :D

But amazed by the quick turnaround of just over 24 hours and they didn’t charge me a penny - they decided to cover the cost under the consumer rights legislation. Well I was going to argue with them using that anyway, but it was refreshing to see a company actively offering this.

I remember in the days of the White Macbooks constantly having to quote said legislation (/it's predecessor) to get them to replace my cracked palm rest which i believe happened 6 times in all.
"You're holding it wrong in transport" being my personal favorite from a manager.
Glad to hear they're a little more clued up now.

They still try the 'Apple One (1) Year Limited Warranty' crap though. Nope, that'll be 2 in the UK thanks. OK, i'll just buy it from JL and take 3 then.